Structural cohesion in Arnold Bennett's Clayhanger trilogy

• Main Author: Green, Laura Maurine
• Format: Others
• Published: Scholarly Commons 1975
• Subjects: Bennett; Arnold; 1867-1931 Clayhanger family;University of the Pacific Dissertations; Arts and Humanities; English Language and Literature; Modern Literature; Social and Behavioral Sciences
• Online Access: https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/uop_etds/1880; https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2879&context=uop_etds

This paper will demonstrate how Bennett’s “circumstantial” history of his age, as it streams by the reader, is controlled, analyzed, and interpreted. The framework of characters and events stand firm, their foundations solid in the systematic working-out, through symbolism and irony, of Bennett’s conviction that there is a “cause and effect” relationship between the physical environment and the character and sociological evolution and the character. Bennett writes that “the spirit of literature… enforces a moral wisdom by tracing everywhere of cause and effect.” The structures of characters and events are raised, reinforced, illuminated, inspected, and photographed through the use of symbolism, irony, and multiple points of view. Organized detail bricks in the framework.